NASA Artist Brings Jupiter to Life at the Museum
LOS ANGELES — The past few weeks, thanks to the Star Walk app, I've had the pleasure of watching Jupiter and the Moon flirt and dance in the sky. The planet looks like a star to my untrained eye, but it's the largest in the solar system and largely gaseous.
LOS ANGELES — The past few weeks, thanks to the Star Walk app, I’ve had the pleasure of watching Jupiter and the Moon flirt and dance in the sky. The planet looks like a star to my untrained eye, but it’s the largest in the solar system and largely gaseous.
What would it be like to touch down on Jupiter? Dan Goods, who holds the fabulous title of Visual Strategist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, recently gave us a glimpse at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. I saw the installation, Beneath the Surface, at a recent Mindshare Los Angeles event and loved the out-of-this-world landscape he created.
To bring the piece further to life and make it interactive, he introduced UV lightning bolts that crash through the planet. But as the naked eye can’t see UV, we have to use the cameras on our cell phones — “Except the iPhone 4,” he quickly noted. “Those have UV filters now.” — to see them. It’s a thrilling installation that makes that little dot in the sky that much more mysterious.
Want to see Jupiter too? The installation travels. “I’m looking for new venues,” he told me.
